Chronicles of Heaven's Chosen - Chapter 41

All three men were charred black.

Hidden in the grass, Yuan Yao could not help laughing.

She crawled out, raised one hand, and gracefully plucked a dead twig from her hair.

Still numb from the lightning, Cui He and the others suddenly heard movement nearby.

They endured the pain and forced their heads up.

A white-robed girl stood before them.

The moment they saw her face, their breathing stopped.

“So you’re the one playing tricks on us!” Cui He recovered first and glared at her.

His body still tingled from the lightning, but he clenched his teeth, drew the longsword at his waist with all his strength, and prepared to strike his way free.

“That’s right. It was me.” Yuan Yao grinned.

Her hands moved through a rapid series of seals. In a heartbeat, a formation sigil surged into being above her palm, and she hurled it toward them.

“Gravity Formation, activate!”

Boom!

The ground cracked, and all three men’s feet abruptly sank into the earth.

Pain twisted their faces. Their bodies seemed to weigh a thousand jin (over 1,100 pounds), leaving them unable to struggle free.

Wave after wave of crushing force bore down on their heads, distorting their features.

“Who… who are you?” Zhang Zhengchu asked in terror.

His numb lips would not obey him, and the words came out blurred.

Yuan Yao clasped her hands behind her back and, feigning mystery, recited their names.

“Zhang Zhengchu. Gongshan Yongyuan. Cui He.”

Their expressions changed.

Yuan Yao raised one hand with the air of a peerless expert.

“You don’t need to know who I am. I have appeared today for one reason: to teach you the meaning of awakening. Now, begin reflecting on every wrong you have committed since birth. If your reflection is thorough enough, I’ll let you go.”

The three men stared at her strangely.

She had deliberately set formations to attack them… merely to make them reflect on their mistakes?

Was there something wrong with her head?

“You first.” Yuan Yao pointed at the plump Gongshan Yongyuan.

He stared in disbelief. “Me?”

“You.”

“I’ve never done anything wrong…”

“Liar!”

Yuan Yao’s expression darkened. A five-colored staff, nearly five meters long, materialized in her hands.

She raised it and swung it down at Gongshan Yongyuan.

“Take this!”

His eyes bulged.

He instinctively tried to dodge, but the Gravity Formation intensified and crushed him flat against the ground.

“No—!”

Bang!

The brightly colored staff slammed into his back, making him spit out a mouthful of blood.

“Aaaagh!”

Gongshan Yongyuan’s scream made Zhang Zhengchu and Cui He’s hearts lurch.

The staff in Yuan Yao’s hand instantly shortened.

She raised a brow. “You had better reflect sincerely. Otherwise, even I don’t know what I might do.”

“I’ll talk… I’ll talk…” Trembling and coughing blood, Gongshan Yongyuan lifted one hand.

“Go on.”

His confession spilled out.

“When I was seven, I spied on the woman next door while she bathed. When I was eight, a friend and I encountered a spirit beast. I was afraid, so I abandoned him and ran. He didn’t escape. When I joined the Chongxu Sect at ten, I stole a servant disciple’s allotment, which kept him from becoming an outer disciple to this day. When I was twelve, a senior brother stole my pills while we were training outside the sect. I later schemed against him and got him killed by a spirit beast…”

He spoke for a full quarter-hour.

The longer he went on, the more enthusiastic he became.

This did not sound like repentance. He seemed proud of everything he had done.

Yuan Yao was speechless.

When Gongshan Yongyuan finished, he appeared to realize that his tone had been inappropriate. Still lying flat, he cautiously looked up at Yuan Yao and pulled his mouth into a placating smile.

“Now reflect,” Yuan Yao said.

At the same time, she watched the other two from the corner of her eye for any unusual movement.

Neither tried anything.

They had become absorbed in Gongshan Yongyuan’s stories.

He immediately put on a show of grief, sniffling loudly.

“It was all my fault! If not for me, they wouldn’t have died or suffered so much. I was wrong! But I know that now!”

He wailed with extravagant sorrow.

Yuan Yao’s mouth twitched.

His performance had lost all contact with reality.

Even Zhang Zhengchu and Cui He thought he had gone too far.

“Wrong attitude,” Yuan Yao said. “Start over.”

She walked closer and laid another formation around the first.

Cui He and Zhang Zhengchu’s expressions changed.

“What are you doing?”

Yuan Yao tipped up her chin. “I’ve decided to stay here with you. If you don’t reflect properly, I’ll blow all three of you to pieces.”

The men exchanged glances, then drew their weapons and prepared to break the Gravity Formation by force.

All three were in the middle Foundation Establishment Realm. They refused to believe they could not shatter a little girl’s formation.

But the instant they moved—

Rumble!

Lightning flashed and struck them again.

Yuan Yao looked at their bedraggled, shuddering bodies and sighed.

“I told you not to move, but you insisted. Now look what you’ve done. You triggered the lightning-element formation.”

Zhang Zhengchu flew into a rage. He glared at Yuan Yao with bulging eyes.

“You little bitch! I’ll slaughter you today!”

Before he finished, he swung his razor-sharp sword with all his strength and sent a vicious arc of sword energy straight at her.

Boom!

The sword energy crashed into a transparent formation barrier.

Then something changed.

The attack had triggered the Ice Arrow Formation.

Countless freezing arrows poured from the sky in a dense, storming mass.

All three men stared upward in terror and disbelief. They raised their weapons on instinct, desperately trying to block the onslaught.

“Aagh!”

One of the arrows buried itself squarely in Gongshan Yongyuan’s shoulder.

They defended, then counterattacked.

But every attack they launched activated yet another formation.

In moments, attacks from multiple formations erupted at once, covering heaven and blanketing earth as they swept toward the three men.

“Aaaagh!”

Their screams rose without pause.

Yuan Yao nodded in satisfaction.

She had placed six formations in total.

That should be enough to hold them.

She was determined to win all three over and claim three more days of life.